A fair amount of disclosures have been put forward in recent years, seeking to develop a foldable/collapsible structure primarily for use as an animal shelter. More specifically, a number of pet houses and enclosures have been proposed with the purpose of providing a sleeping area for a pet and for confining a pet, when necessary, for example, when traveling.
A number of solutions have been proposed to provide improved structures, including those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,950,568; 6,131,534; 7,021,242; 7,025,019 and United States Patent Application Publication No. 2006/0162670, all commonly assigned to the assignee of the present invention and included herein by reference in their entirety.
Turning to a background consideration relating to pet carriers, it is noted that a variety of pet carriers have been also been reported in the prior art, all aimed in one form or another to facilitate pet transportation. Specifically, pet carriers are commonly used by pet owners for carrying their pets on trips or as a means for containing the pets when the pets are shipped from one point to another. Pet carriers also commonly double as sleeping quarters for the pet as the owner may contain the pet overnight to prevent the pet from wandering and potentially damaging the home or hotel room which the owner is occupying.